Happy Lughnassadh, Happy Imbolc

Happy Lughnassadh, the first harvest in the Northern hemisphere, often celebrated between July 31 at sunset and August 2 sunset. It is mirrored in the southern world at the same time by the festival Imbolc, the first stirrings of new life as the land awakes after winter when the goddess Brigit or Brighid melts the cold with her willow wand and candles blaze in her honor.

In the old Celtic calendar, many say, Lughnassadh was the time when the ageing Sun and Grain God sacrificed his life for the harvest as the last sheaf of grain to be cut down. He transferred his remaining powers to the Earth Mother and sometimes what we sacrifice in the short term to fulfil our dreams can bring us long-term gains beyond what we hoped for. This grain was made into the first harvest loaf to transfer the power and courage of the old sun into the lives of those who ate it. This continued as the Christian tradition called Lammas or Loaf mass on August 1 when a loaf made from the harvest was offered on the altar.

At the wheel of the year’s turning, this Lammas is for many a hard - won harvest this year, as wars and famine persist and poverty affects every land for the increasing number of have-nots. Climate change too is reflected starkly in extreme weather conditions.

But still the Wheel turns. The first harvest demands to be reaped even as half a world away, new seeds are jostling for dominance in the softening soil. The seasons will not be halted.

 Time then to celebrate a personal harvest of what we have achieved in the previous year sometimes despite seemingly impossible odds and what we wish to plant in faith of better times. No wasted moments regretting what we cannot do or what did not succeed, but within constraints and constrictions, re- awakening our lives in ever more ingenious ways.

Now is the time to do something fun and creative, striving to make an income from what you enjoy most or just enjoying that creativity, find or restore true love or rejoice in being alone, conceive a healthy child when you had given up hope or move to the place you most want to be.

For now, too, experience the pleasure of small harvest treasures, rejoicing as you help others also to fulfil their dreams. Then you can value maybe for the first time in ages, who you are as you are, where you are and with whom you are sharing your world or rejoice in the freedom to define your unique path through life alone.

The focus of this period is for obtaining justice and for natural justice or karma kicking in, for human and personal rights issues, freedom from abuse of any kind; for partnerships, both personal and legal or business, for signing contracts or concluding property matters(good for house sales and purchases); promotion and career advancement and the regularizing of  personal finances; for holidays and  journeys to see friends and family or on business and the renewal of promises, loyalty and fidelity; also willing sacrifice for a long term gain or one made in love, trusting the cosmos to provide by giving without seeking immediate return.

Ways of Marking the Festival in the Modern world

• Bake your own bread on Lughnassadh Eve or night, either with yeast or from a mix in the shape of a figure who can either represent the Grain\Corn Spirit or the Grain Mother. Add a little milk to the mix and as you stir the mix in turn with friends and family or alone, make wishes for abundance and the harvest you wish to reap during the coming months.

• When your bread is cooked eat or share it and name the transformations you seek in your life/the world. At dawn put out any remaining crumbs for the wild birds.

• Bake extra bread or fruit pies to give to neighbours and colleagues who maybe live alone and do not cook for themselves often.

• Cut down an area of weeds or overgrown grass in your garden or tidy up plants, remembering to leave some wild for the butterflies and small animals. Alternatively spend a day on an organised project clearing local wilderness or litter strewn areas , to generate the energies to clear your way ahead in your life and relationships.

• Light an orange candle every evening, if possible, for a week around the Lammas festival. Sprinkle a pinch of salt in the flame to let go of any injustice that cannot be put right but which needs to be released from your mind to set you free. Then add a small pinch of dried sage to the flame and name a blessing however small or an unexpected kindness you have received in the previous few months. At the end of the week, make a practical gesture or spoken small blessing to someone who does not merit it

• Make a Corn spirit figure, as an abstract shape with ears of corn tied together. Burn him on the last day of Lughnassadh, just before dusk and scatter the ashes in your garden or on indoor plants to bring abundance to the home during the winter.

• If you feel you have been unjustly treated and cannot put matters right, knot dried grasses or pluck the petals of a dying flower, one for each injustice and cast them into running water or bury them. Plant late flowering seeds or autumn flowers.

• Arrange journeys to see friends and relations or mail or phone making definite plans to meet, as this is a time when tribes would get together before the long winter.

• Each day find the smallest blessing and bonus not to be squandered or wished away but making our personal mark on life on our  personal  renaissance.

Happy Imbolc in the southern hemisphere, often celebrated between sunset on July 31 to sunset on August 2. Imbolc means ‘In the belly of the Mother ‘and refers to the potential for growth in whatever way is most relevant in your life. This festival is associated by many with the pre- Christian tradition of the young maiden goddess Brighid or Brigit who with her willow wand melted the winter snows and brought new life to the land. But it is also linked with the story of the newly delivered mother of the infant Sun king whose milk is mirrored by the milk of the ewes, who gave this festival its other name of Oimelc or Ewe’s milk.

The focus of this period is for expressing new ideas, the promise that winter actual or emotional will end, planning the future and putting out the first shoots of new love and the growth or regrowth of trust, for taking the first steps to launch any projects that start in a small way; for reconciliation with estranged loves or family members, for melting rigid attitudes or prejudice that may have led to conflicts between families and work colleagues; a special time for fertility, for newborn infants, babies and young animals and for animal rescue and the conservation of habitats for wild creatures. 

Ways of marking the festival in the modern world

• Personal and home purification, by burning smudge or incense sticks in sage, sagebrush or cedar and spiralling the smudge around your home, your possessions and yourself before taking the smoke stick outdoors to burn away or go out.

• Personal detoxing and the beginning of a fitness and healthy eating regime to maximise your energy and increase your resistance to ills and chills.

• Candle meditations or just quiet times sitting by candlelight talking to your family or friends. If you are alone hold a clear crystal between your hands and ask your guardian angel and spirit guides if they have any messages for you. These may be expressed through words that come into your mind or images and sudden good ideas.

• Create a candle web with friends or relatives for healing or peace. Choose an evening when you are all at home and pre- agree a time when you can light a white or beeswax candle and all focus on the same person, animal or place and send healing through the candle. You can adapt the web for people who live in nearby time zones. Leave the candle to burn through.

• Plant seeds, naming for each handful of seeds what you wish to bring into your life in the months ahead.

• In age- old tradition, pour a little fresh milk on to the earth as a tribute to the Earth Mother and as you do so, ask for fertility in any aspect of your life you need it. Drink the rest or use it in cooking

• On the night of July 31 or August 1, place nightlights safely at every window of your home to welcome the new energies into your home. Once torches, it is said , were lit to welcome Brighid the maiden goddess on her day in the Northern hemisphere, February 1 and later St Bridget on the Christian festival of Candlemas, February 2, the blessing of the candles for the year ahead in a special church service. Take along a green plant or two to refresh the workplace and as a reminder of the coming spring.

• Write some poetry or a story or start your novel whether for pleasure of publication.

• If you doubt yourself or others at Imbolc, reach across the world to absorb the evolved warmth of the mirror festival, Lughnassadh, the first harvest.

Wherever you live in the world, let your Imbolc even in uncertain times symbolise the promise of harvest after growth in the unbroken ever-turning  cycle of the world.